Pics of the day - Feb 14, 2011: Nightmode at Conservapedia

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Pics of the day - Feb 14, 2011: Nightmode at Conservapedia

Aug 2008
In 2008, RationalWiki had a little tool to spot whether general editing at Conservapedia was allowed - or not (night-mode). The data provided let to this - rather uneventful - diagram: night-mode was switched on roundabout midnight and off early in the morning. A sysop who editing during the night could turn it off, as he stood guard against the vandals.
Jun 2010
The same update of the mediawiki software which killed Conservapedia:Guard Dog sadly disabled the RationalWiki's nightmode surveillance tool. So, since June 2010 I looked up the toggling of the night-mode myself, alas quite irregularly. At this time, the night-mode became more and more erratic. But as it only prevents the peons from editing, and doesn't affect Conservapedia's elite, the sysops never bothered about the detrimental effects.
Jul 2010
Then I started to watch the times during which account creation was allowed.
Sep 2010
This came handy, as Andy Schlafly developed a bizarre strategy:
Oct 2010
The vandal is getting nervous as he is baited with the following strategy of sequencing access through these combinations:
registration off and editing on,
registration on and editing off,
registration off and editing on,

etc., but never registration and editing both on at the same time. The vandal never set a sleeper account for himself, so when registration is off and editing is on, he can't vandalize, and when registration is on but editing is off, the most he can do is set up sleeper accounts. But he's getting nervous about doing that because he senses he's being watched. He merely set up one sleeper account earlier this evening ... from Uruguay with an obviously fictitious name! I blocked it. He's worried that his IP will be discovered. NEVER HAVE BOTH REGISTRATION AND EDITING ON AT THE SAME TIME for a while. There is no reason to. Andy /CP/211-240/0592d85440f3a0ec.htm baiting, watching the vandal

Oct/Nov 2010
But in the following account creation was generally turned off.
Nov 2010
Conservapedia chose to put up quite a number of loops to jump through for someone who wants just to make his first few edits. This is indeed something distinguishing it from wikipedia...
Jan 2011
Conservapedia tried to control vandals by limiting their ability to create an account. At the same time, Conservapedia was able to lift the night-editing restrictions, as no one but the trusted few could edit anyhow.
Feb 2010
Back to (a)normal: You have to be lucky to create an account, but at least you will be able to edit after registration, and don't have to wait....
larronsicut fur in nocte08:37, 14 February 2011